Intended for high school literature teachers, this book reviews research in educational psychology and reading comprehension, and outlines classroom activities for direct instruction and practice of interpretive strategies. The book cites studies which reveal that if teachers distrust students' ability to interpret literature effectively, they may dominate classroom discussion and bore students by confining them to short answers. It describes direct-teaching experiments in which students' comprehension of literature improved when they were taught to distinguish between different kinds of questions. The book discusses research in which students successfully used a set of questions to detect irony in literature, and offers another set of questions to help students understand that in fiction, they will encounter fallible narrators. The book maintains that discussions, small-group work, and other activities help students get below the surface of literature, relate it to life, and move toward independent interpretations. The book offers interpretive units constructed around three short stories, and provides checklists, reproducible handouts, and a bibliography. (MG)